"Vera Drake" and "Being Julia"- Page 2

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 2/1/05 at 9:37pm

Yeah. The only reason that I'm not going to see either again is because there are several Oscar nominated films that I've yet to see, so they get bumped to the top of my list.

[DBillyP]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 1:17pm

I finally saw VERA DRAKE yesterday. I was very much looking forward to seeing this film, but I walked away underwhelmed and disappointed. Perhaps I had heard so many positive things about Imelda Staunton's performance that it could not live up to my expectations. (Yes, I know. This will be a very unpopular opinion.)

Yes, she is quiet and understated and natural, qualities that I long for in acting. But I kept waiting for the moment that makes her performance revelatory, the moment that shows that she is the only actress who could have done that role in that way, but it never came. For example, Stockard Channing in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION several years ago. The monologue at the dinner table near the end of the film that leaves you breathless. Or more recently, the look on Catalina Moreno Sandino's face as she swallows the capsules filled with heroine or Virginia Madsen's monologue in SIDEWAYS.

For me, this may be the fault of the film. When questioned by the police about why she "helps" young women, she never answers. I expected there to be a monologue about why...she was raped as a child, her own mother's life had been so difficult raising a child on her own...something. Instead, we see Vera perform abortions in the first half of the film, with almost the same happy-go-lucky attitude with which she does everything else; during the second half of the film she cries.

I wanted to like the film. I wanted to like her. Unfortunately, now I must suffer the flames of the BWW board because I liked neither.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 1:45pm

I don't flame anyone. I had no trouble understanding WHY. She was a caretaker of everyones troubles. that is the defining quality of the character. She is a geneorous caring soul who helps- she took no money for helping the depressed woman's family cos that was what u did u all pulled together & helped out- same with girls in trouble. The scene when the police come- her face! Broke my heart.